5 Factor Journal

I attended a meeting before the start of the Olympics and the speaker noted that the stars really do have to be extraordinarily aligned to work an Olympics in your home country. The experience has been indescribably exciting, exhilarating, and yes exhausting too. We’re only on Day 4.

I report to work on Olympic Morning at 2:30am every day and I’m released at 8:00am. Then I shoot for etalk until 10am. After that I blog until 2pm. Sometimes I have an etalk assignment scheduled in the afternoon. If I do, there’s usually no sleep. If not, I sleep until about 5pm or 6pm, work on my column some more, then get ready for the party circuit, and I head straight from the club to the studio back to Olympic Morning to start the process all over again. My file time for The Globe & Mail is 6:30am. So I usually write that first, then script for television after.

I don’t need a lot of sleep but I do tend to eat terribly when I’m working – bacon, hash browns, burgers, chips, croissants, fries, nachos, pizza, you end up feeling very sluggish after a couple days. When I interviewed celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak last week, we talked about meal plan deliveries and Dan Levy, host of the Aftershow on MTV, reminded me about when he took his shirt off on television, and how hard he’s been working out, and the meal plan service that he subscribed to and it occurred to me it’s not a bad idea: to bring my own prepacked meals to work, arriving to the broadcast centre with my lunch box because at least that will help me avoid those decadent Danish rolls they put out in the morning, so good until the sugar rush fades to what I’ve now called the 5am crash.

Harley was all like – if you eat right you’ll feel right and I put on my sceptical face so he put together a meal plan through Licious Living for me based on his new 5 Factor World Diet that isn’t so much for weight loss as it is for energy and health management.

He’s right that I cannot sustain this pace without proper nutrition. He’s also convinced that I will have time to work out. And that I can do so in half hour spurts without sacrificing too much sleep pushed by my trainer Hayley. So now I’m challenging Harley’s 5 Factor Meal Plan and this is the journal.

Many of you write to me about recipes and training, about prepping for my marathon. Many of your questions are similar, and many of you have suggested lifestyle content on this site in addition to the gossip. Let’s start here.

Two weeks on the 5 Factor, an entry every day, and I am personally paying full cost for the service. Most people don’t use the service long term. Dan Levy for example used the service for a month to kickstart some new eating habits. I’m using it because I have not a minute to spare on food preparation or grocery shopping. As for the prices, no, I wouldn’t say it’s great on a budget. But if you break it down daily, think about how much you spend on Starbucks and a six inch at Subway, or a soup and salad at the food court, and consider your meals three times a day, plus 2 snacks... $40 isn’t a breaker. Especially when they bring it to your front door as part of the fee.

Meals are delivered every night for the next day, dropped off in a cute little cooler. Your daily meal plan is neatly tucked into a slot at the top. Here’s the menu for today:

Breakfast – West Coast Breakfast Parfait with Yoghurt

Lunch – Edamame Salad w/ Sauteed Shrimp

Dinner – Thai Vegetarian Curry Bowl

Snack – Tuna Salad with celery sticks

Snack – Strawberry Oatmeal Bar

We’ve 14 days to go. It’s a long, long road with many allnighters ahead. Will let you know how it goes.

Harley Pasternak just came off training Lady Gaga during her tour. He also trains Kanye West and John Mayer, Sophia Bush, and Jennifer Hudson post-baby, and has worked with Jessica Simpson and Halle Berry. Click here for his site.